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_________________________________________________________________
TM
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_________________________________________________________________
Bird's-Eye-View
v1.2
Copyright 1995,1996 by
Toham Soft
All Rights Reserved
_______
____|__ | (R)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT
_________________________________________________________________
Users of Bird's-Eye-View must accept this disclaimer of warranty:
Bird's-Eye-View is supplied as is. Toham Soft disclaims all
warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation,
the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose.
Toham Soft assumes no liability for damages, direct or conse-
quential, which may result from the use of Bird's-Eye-View.
Screen Print
Table of Contents Page Page
_________________________________________________________________
Introduction ..................................... 5 1
Why another file viewer? .................... 7 2
Installation ..................................... 9 3
Quick Start ................................. 11 4
About Sample Documents ...................... 11 4
Using Bird's-Eye-View ............................ 12 5
Starting Bird's-Eye-View .................... 12 5
What is Cataloging? ......................... 13 5
Viewing a Cataloged Document ................ 14 6
What is a Folder? ........................... 15 6
Giving a Descriptive Name to a Folder ....... 16 7
Cataloging of a Document .................... 17 7
Cataloging a Document Currently Viewed ...... 19 8
Deleting a Document from Catalog ............ 19 8
Navigating in the Main Screen ............... 20 8
Going to a Specific Screen Page ............. 21 9
Going to the Place Last Viewed .............. 21 9
Finding a Text .............................. 22 9
Viewing a Non-cataloged Document ............ 22 9
Command Summary .................................. 23 10
In the Main Screen .......................... 23 10
Inside the Folder Menu ...................... 25 10
Inside the Document Menu .................... 25 11
Technical Notes .................................. 26 12
System Files ................................ 27 12
Sample Documents ............................ 27 12
Network User ................................ 28 12
System Requirement .......................... 29 13
System Specification ........................ 29 13
Technical Support ........................... 30 13
Registration Information ......................... 30 14
_________________________________________________________________
Note: Screen Page(SP) indicates the screen page number in
Bird's-Eye-View program, where one SP consist of exactly
23 lines. If you are viewing this manual with BEV, you can
go to a specific section by pressing its SP number.
Print Page(PP) indicates the normal page number when the
file is printed.
________________________________________________________________ PP 1
Introduction
_________________________________________________________________
Welcome to Bird's-Eye-View.
Bird's-Eye-View is a program that allows you to view ASCII
text files, on screen, in a highly functional way.
Bird's-Eye-View allows you to:
- View any ASCII text file of any size;
- Catalog up to 676 files with descriptive title
for speedy retrieval;
- Group files into 26 folders that you can name;
- Go directly to screen specific page;
- Go to the place where you viewed in the previous session;
- Search text string.
Bird's-Eye-View is not suitable for:
- Editing a file (no editing feature);
- Printing a file;
- Handling in binary(hex) format.
________________________________________________________________ PP 2
Why another file viewer?
________________________
Here are some of the problems with most other file viewers:
- Going to a specific place in a file is too cumbersome.
Although many programs allow you to go to a specific line,
what we need most of the time is the ability to go
to a specific page as defined in table of contents.
- You have to spend too much time just to continue viewing
from the place you left in the previous session.
- Using a descriptive title for a file, as opposed to a file
name that is limited by DOS' 8.3 convention, is not
possible.
- Being able to conveniently use a function like cataloging
a file would be a great value. Since many times the user
just wants to view a certain file without caring where
that file is located.
- Viewing a text file by screen page, rather than by
document's page(in its printed form) is a feature that
is not found in many other file viewers. Although many ASCII
text files contain tables of contents, this is almost
useless, since the page referred to in the table of
content is the document's printed page, not the page
as it appears, screen-by-screen.
- There should be a real quick way to bring up documents
with a minimal number of keystrokes, especially those
frequently referenced documents(e.g., ASCII Code Table)
Bird's-Eye-View is the answer to above problems.
________________________________________________________________ PP 3
Installation
_________________________________________________________________
Installing Bird's-Eye-View is as simple as it can be. You just
create a directory and copy all files into this directory.
That's it.
1. Create a subdirectory for BEV('VU' is used here under
root directory)
c:\> MD VU
2. Copy all files into C:\VU subdirectory
If you want to run BEV from any directory you happen to be in,
you need to create a batch file in your search path. If you
installed BEV in C:\VU as illustrated above, you can just copy
VU.BAT, unchanged, into your search path.
Example) If C:\DOS is in your search path,
c:\vu> COPY VU.BAT C:\DOS
If you installed BEV in directory other than C:\VU, change the
line in VU.BAT using any ASCII text editor like DOS EDIT.
Example) If you installed BEV in D:\CHRIS\VIEWER
Change C:\VU\VU.EXE %1
into D:\CHRIS\VIEWER\VU.EXE %1
BEV doesn't need any special line in your configuration file
(CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, WIN.INI, or SYSTEM.INI). In case you
need to uninstall BEV, just delete the directory where it was
installed.
________________________________________________________________ PP 4
Quick Start
___________
All you need to do to start Bird's-Eye-View is to type VU at DOS
prompt:
c:\vu> VU
or, if you want to view a specific file initially, type:
c:\vu> VU file_name
If you have created VU.BAT as instructed in Installation section,
you can run the program from any directory.
About Sample Documents
______________________
Bird's-Eye-View is shipped with several sample documents. Some
of the them are useful by themselves(like 1995 Calendar), while
others are provided as examples(like Employee Phone Extension).
These documents are grouped and cataloged in Folder S.
Since we don't know the directory where BEV will be installed,
these documents were cataloged without any path information.
This means, you must run the program from the BEV directory to
view the samples. If you run the program from anywhere other
than BEV directory, and still want to view sample documents,
you must provide path information in the catalog (as explained
later).
________________________________________________________________ PP 5
Using Bird's-Eye-View
_________________________________________________________________
Starting Bird's-Eye-View
________________________
To start Bird's-Eye-View, type VU at DOS prompt.
Example)
c:\vu> VU
If you want to view a specific file initially, just add file name
after VU.
Example)
c:\vu> VU README.DOC
What is Cataloging?
___________________
In the above example, you specified README.DOC as a file name.
If you need to view a file frequently, you would want to save its
file name somewhere so that you don't have to type lengthy file
name(with its path name) everytime you wished to view this file.
We call this process of saving file names and descriptive titles
"Cataloging". Cataloging saves a lot of keystrokes when
retrieving files.
In addition, Bird's-Eye-View remembers the last place you viewed
for each cataloged file. For example, you were viewing screen
page 34 of README.DOC when you were interrupted by another
project. So, you quit the program and went on to other things.
Sometime later, when you return to the documents you were
viewing, BEV shows screen page 34 automatically.
________________________________________________________________ PP 6
Viewing a Cataloged Document
____________________________
Once a document is cataloged, retrieving it is easy.
To view a cataloged document, follow these steps:
1. Press <Space> to open Folder Menu
Folder Menu will appear.
2. Select a Folder either by highlighting a Folder followed
by <Enter>, or by simply typing its Folder ID (A-Z)
Document Menu will appear listing all documents which
belong to the folder you have chosen.
3. Select a Document you wish to view
Contents of the document will appear.
Example) One of the sample documents is "1995 Calendar".
To view this document, press <Space> and then type
, 'S' and 'C' in that order.
As you can see here, all cataloged documents are only three
keystrokes away from the main screen.
What is a Folder?
_________________
A Folder is just like a folder you keep in your file cabinet;
you would put several related files in the same folder, and you
would give it a name. A folder in BEV is a group of related
documents. You can have up to 26 folders (identified as A thru
Z) and each folder holds up to 26 documents(again, A thru Z).
The Folder Menu pops up when you press <Space>. It lists all
26 folders with their folder IDs(A thru Z) and descriptive names.
Although it is possible to leave a folder name blank, you would
most likely want to provide each folder with a descriptive name.
Using sample documents as an example, Folder S was given the
descriptive name: 'Sample Documents'.
________________________________________________________________ PP 7
Giving a Descriptive Name to a Folder
_____________________________________
To give, or change a folder name, highlight the folder in the
Folder Menu and press <F3>. Bird's-Eye-View will present popup
dialog box that will look like this:
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Folder ID : S │
│ Folder Name: Sample Documents │
│ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Folder ID field is automatic and read-only.
Type descriptive name in the Folder Name field and press <Enter>.
Cataloging of a Document
________________________
The procedures for cataloging a document is the same as changing
a folder name; only this time you have to fill one more field of
information -- its file name.
To add, change, or delete a document in catalog, press <F3> while
highlighting a document in the Document Menu. Bird's-Eye-View
will present popup dialog box that will look like this:
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Document ID: SC │
│ File Name : C:\VU\CALENDAR.VU │
│ Description: 1995 Calendar │
│ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Just fill necessary information in each field, and then press
<Enter>.
Document ID - this field is filled automatically. Read-only.
File Name - type DOS file name including complete path.
Description - type in any description you like. When you first
fill in this field, it defaults to the content of
a first line of a file you specified in File Name
field.
________________________________________________________________ PP 8
Cataloging a Document Currently Viewed
______________________________________
If you want to catalog a document currently viewed, press <F2>
in the Document Menu while highlighting an empty item.
Bird's-Eye-View fills in File Name field automatically.
Deleting a Document from Catalog
________________________________
If you want to delete a document from the Catalog, highlight the
document to be deleted in the Document Menu, and press <F4>.
Of course, deleting a document means deleting it from menu only,
not deleting a document itself. Bird's-Eye-View will never
delete or change the original document.
Navigating in the Main Screen
_____________________________
Navigation keys work almost the same way as in other popular
text view/edit program, except for the use of numeric keys.
Following is the list of navigation keys:
Arrow keys to move one character/line at a time
PgUp/PgDn to move one page at a time
Ctrl+Home to go to the first page
Ctrl+End to go to the last page
0-9 to go to a specific screen page
(Numeric key)
________________________________________________________________ PP 9
Going to a Specific Screen Page
_______________________________
One of the most convenient feature of Bird's-Eye-View is its
ability to allow you to navigate using a 23-line "screen page".
A screen page consist of 23 lines. For example, if a document
has 2,300 lines, its total screen pages would be 100 in BEV's
point of view.
You can go to any screen page by using numeric keys(0-9).
If a document has less than 9 screen pages, BEV will show the
specific screen page as soon as you press a numeric key. For
example, if you press '7', the screen page 7 will show up
instantly.
If a document has more than 9 screen pages, you need to press
additional <Enter> key at the popup dialog screen prompting page
number.
Going to the Place Last Viewed
______________________________
Bird's-Eye-View remembers the place where you viewed last time
for every cataloged document. Whenever you pick a document
from the Document Menu, BEV shows immediately the place where you
last viewed. It works even after you exit out of the BEV program
and come in at later time.
Finding a Text
______________
You can find a text string by pressing 'F'(Find). You can repeat
last find by pressing 'G'(aGain).
Viewing a Non-cataloged Document
________________________________
There are two ways to view a non-cataloged document.
One is to give a file name at the start up time as described
in "Starting Bird's-Eye-View".
The other way is to press 'O'(Open) in the BEV main screen.
BEV will display popup dialog box where you can type in the file
name(with path).
Note that when you are viewing a non-cataloged document, document
ID field in the title bar shows just blank.
________________________________________________________________ PP 10
Command Summary
___________________________________________________________
All commands are case insensitive; pressing 'f', for
example, has the same effect as pressing 'F'.
In the Main Screen
__________________
Esc Quit
Space, F10 Display the Folder Menu
Arrow keys Move one character/line at a time
PgUp/PgDn Move one page at a time
Ctrl+Home Go to the first page
Ctrl+End Go to the last page
0-9(Numeric) Go to a specific screen page
F Find text string
G Find again
O Open a file
F1 Display help screen
Inside the Folder Menu
______________________
Esc Go back to the main screen
F3 Change a folder item
A-Z(Alphabet) Display a specified Document Menu
Enter Display the Document Menu of the highlighted folder
________________________________________________________________ PP 11
Inside the Document Menu
________________________
Esc Go back to the Folder Menu
F2 Catalog the currently viewed document
F3 Change a document item
F4 Delete a highlighted document from the Document Menu
A-Z(Alphabet) Display a specified document
Enter Display a highlighted document
________________________________________________________________ PP 12
Technical Notes
_________________________________________________________________
System Files
____________
File Name Description
------------ -------------------------------------------
VU.EXE Program file
VU.CAT Catalog file
VU.BAT Batch file to invoke Bird's-Eye-View
VU.DOC BEV manual
REGISTER.DOC Register information and order form
FILE_ID.DIZ Program Description used by some BBS
VENDOR.DOC Information for Vendor
README.1ST Last minute update
Sample Documents
________________
File Name Description
------------ -------------------------------------------
ASCIITBL.VU ASCII Code Table
CAL95.VU 1995 Calendar
DOTPCL.VU Dot Matrix Printer Control Code(Epson LQ)
EBCDIC.VU EBCDIC Code Table
METRICS.VU Metrics - U.S. Conversion Chart
MISSPELL.VU Frequently Misspelled Words
PHONEEXT.VU Employee Phone Extension (Example)
PRESIDNT.VU Presidents of the U.S.
All sample files have the extension of .VU. It simply means that
they are samples and some files are arranged in 23 lines per page
format. There is no formatting code embedded in these files;
they are all plain ASCII text files.
Network User
____________
Bird's-Eye-View can be installed in the network drive. The
catalog information is stored in VU.CAT in the same directory
where VU.EXE exists. VU.CAT will be overwritten whenever any
user quits the program. If you are a network administrator and
do not want anybody else to change the catalog file, set the file
attribute of VU.CAT to read-only. Any changes on catalog will
not be saved in VU.CAT.
________________________________________________________________ PP 13
System Requirement
__________________
- 80286 or above
- MS-DOS 3.3 or later
- 400K of RAM
System Specification
____________________
- Support files of unlimited size
- Support 255 char per line
- Up to 676 files can be cataloged
Technical Support
_________________
If you are having problems using Bird's-Eye-View, contact us at:
CompuServe: 102065,2101
Internet: 102065.2101@compuserve.com
Mail: Toham Soft
3472 Hathaway Ave. #144
Long Beach, CA 90815
________________________________________________________________ PP 14
The Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP)
_________________________________________________________________
┌─────────┐
┌─────┴───┐ │ (R)
──│ │o │──────────────────
│ ┌─────┴╨──┐ │ Association of
│ │ │─┘ Shareware
└───│ o │ Professionals
──────│ ║ │────────────────────
└────╨────┘ MEMBER
Toham Soft is a member of the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware
principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a
shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member
directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you
resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide
technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP
Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI USA 49442-9427, Fax
616-788-2765, or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP
Ombudsman 70007,3536."
Registration Information
_________________________________________________________________
Bird's-Eye-View is provided at no charge, for evaluation purposes
only. This shareware version of Bird's-Eye-View is the complete
working version of the program.
You have limited license for 30 days to use this software for
evaluation purposes only. If you intend to continue using this
software after the 30-day evaluation period, you MUST make a
registration payment to the author.
The registration fee is $20.00 for a single user. This will
license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time.
Site licenses and volume discounts are available. For additional
information, contact us. Registered users will receive the
latest version of the BEV and free technical support(by Mail,
CompuServe, Internet) for three months from the date of
registration.
Information for registration and order form are in REGISTER.DOC.
Following is the content of REGISTER.DOC.
How to Register
________________________________________________________________
Thank you for taking the time to evaluate Bird's-Eye-View.
Bird's-Eye-View comes with 30-day money back guarantee.
You can register Bird's-Eye-View by mail(use the form on the next
page), by phone, or by fax.
┌ CREDIT CARD ORDERS ONLY ───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ You can order with MC, Visa, Amex, or Discover from │
│ Public (software) Library by calling 800-2424-PsL or │
│ 713-524-6394 or by FAX to 713-524-6398 or by CIS Email │
│ to 71355,470. You can also mail credit card orders to │
│ PsL at P.O.Box 35705, Houston, TX 77235-5705. │
│ │
│ THE ABOVE NUMBERS ARE FOR CREDIT CARD ORDERS ONLY. │
│ THE AUTHOR OF THIS PROGRAM CANNOT BE REACHED AT THESE NUMBERS. │
│ │
│ Any questions about the status of the shipment of the order, │
│ refunds, registration options, product details, technical │
│ support, volume discounts, dealer pricing, site licenses, │
│ non-credit card orders, etc, must be directed to: │
│ │
│ Mail: Toham Soft │
│ 3472 Hathaway Ave. #144 │
│ Long Beach, CA 90815 │
│ CompuServe: 102065,2101 │
│ Internet: 102065.2101@compuserve.com │
│ │
│ To insure that you get the latest version, PsL will notify us │
│ the day of your order and we will ship the product directly │
│ to you. │
│ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Product Registration Form
____________________________________________________________
Make check payable and mail to:
Toham Soft
3472 Hathaway Ave. #144
Long Beach, CA 90815
____________________________________________________________
Price Copies Total
Bird's-Eye-View for DOS $20.00 ______ $_________
CA Residents add sales tax: $_________
Shipping/Handling: $3.00 $_________
Total: $_________
Disk Size: [ ] 3.5" [ ] 5.25"
Last Name: ____________________ First Name: ____________________
Company: ________________________________ Title:______________
Address: _______________________________________
_______________________________________
City: _______________________ State ________ Zip __________
Day Phone: (____)______________ Evening: (_____)_______________
E-mail: _______________________________________
Comments: ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
(F-120)